Taken av-3

by Benedict Jacka

  I felt the snap of a spell: air magic. Sunglasses hit the wall to my right with a whump, crumpling to the floor. I turned my head to look over the back of the sofa as the mages walked in.

  There was a rustle of movement from around the room. I recognised the sound of metal against leather and saw the glint of a gun from under one man’s coat. Everyone was focused on the two men, but if they were worried about being outnumbered and surrounded they didn’t show it. “Mage Verus,” the one on the left said. He was tall and lean, with a hard face, and he was the one who’d cast the spell. “We’d like to have a word.”

  “You were told to wait outside,” Jagadev said softly.

  “We have business with Verus,” the tall mage said. “It’s not your concern.”

  “You would force your way into my domain?” Jagadev said. He didn’t raise his voice, but there was something dangerous there and I could feel everyone in the room tense.

  “It’s not your domain, rakshasa,” the mage said. “You stay here because we let you. Now tell your servants to stand down or come morning this place will be a slag heap.”

  The music from below had stopped and the room was quiet. A dozen pairs of eyes were locked on the mages and I could sense weapons readied. The two mages didn’t seem to notice but I could feel the tension of spells poised to trigger. Jagadev was sitting absolutely still and showed no expression, but somehow I was sure that he was furiously angry. The seconds stretched out, ticking away.

  Then Jagadev made a small gesture and the men around us drew back, fingers coming off triggers and muscles relaxing. I let out a soft breath, and I wasn’t the only one. I gave Luna a quick glance; she’d withdrawn to a safe corner and I gave her a nod to stay there.

  “Mage Verus,” the Keeper said.

  “That’s me,” I said.

  “Come with us, please.”

  “I’m kind of in the middle of something,” I said. “Could I come sort this out with you later?”

  “No.”

  “Could I at least know what the problem is?”

  “All right, Verus, if that’s the way you want to play it,” the Keeper said. “An apprentice named Anne Walker has been reported attacked and missing and you’re on record as the last one to have seen her. Under Council authority, you’re required to answer our questions as to why.”

  As the mage spoke I felt a stir of movement from across the room. Behind where Jagadev was sitting was a doorway leading into the club, covered by a bead curtain. “So Anne Walker’s been reported missing?” I asked, raising my voice.

  “That’s what I said.”

  I pointed past Jagadev to the doorway. “Then who exactly is that?”

  The timing was perfect. Anne had been listening from the shadows, and as every eye in the room turned towards her she took her cue and stepped out from behind the curtain. She hesitated a second under the weight of the stares, then walked forward to stand behind Jagadev, heels clicking on the floor.

  Anne looked. . different. In place of the clothes I’d seen her in before she was wearing an outfit of tight black leather, reflections from the lights of the club gleaming from it as she moved. It left her arms bare and showed off the tops of her breasts, and as she walked her hair brushed the skin of her shoulders. She still looked as if she wanted to avoid attention but it really wasn’t working and if anything it actually made people stare more. The only one who didn’t turn to look was Jagadev. He sat unmoving, his eyes fixed on the two mages.

  “Anne Walker?” the first mage said at last. Anne nodded.

  “I think you’ve got some explaining to do,” the mage said. “This way, please.”

  Anne glanced at Jagadev, waiting for his nod, before going to them. The two mages turned and walked out, flanking her as the rest of the room watched them go.

  * * *

  The Keepers were questioning Anne. I could just see them across the room on the far side of the balcony, through the tinted glass. In Jagadev’s room-what I’d taken to thinking of as his court-the atmosphere had eased. The weapons had been put away, though none of the men carrying them had left.

  “You have done me a favour, so I will return it,” Jagadev said, and I turned back to him. He had his furred hands clasped over his chest and I checked idly to see if they were backwards. They weren’t. I guess not all rumours are true. “I do not know who is responsible for the disappearances amongst your kind but I know where they will be. You will find them at the White Stone tournament at Fountain Reach.”

  I don’t think I showed anything on my face but it was a near thing. “How do you know they’ll be there?”

  “That is my concern,” Jagadev said. “Anne and Variam will be attending the tournament. I will have them assist you.”

  “Uh. . thanks.”

  Jagadev nodded. “You may go.”

  I hesitated an instant, thinking of asking Jagadev more questions, but as I looked into the future I saw he wouldn’t answer them. I rose, gave Jagadev a nod, and withdrew. Luna fell in by my side. The guy who’d been thrown into the wall had picked himself back up and watched stone-faced as we left. As we passed through the door I heard chatter start up from behind us.

  I did a quick scan of the area as we emerged back onto the balcony and saw that we didn’t have anyone hunting us down right at the moment. “Well,” I said. “I guess that could have gone worse.”

  Luna was craning her neck to try to look at the other end of the balcony. “Do you think Anne’s okay?”

  “She’s not a suspect,” I said. I leant against the railing and frowned. “That’s the third time in two days I’ve been pointed towards Fountain Reach.”

  “Are you going to go?”

  I thought for a second and nodded. “Yeah. I don’t know what’s going on but I know something is.” I paused. “Of course, it’d help if I had a reason for being there.”

  “You do,” Luna said, and then caught herself. “Oh, right. You can’t tell anyone you’re there to watch the apprentices, can you?”

  “Nope. Of course, if my apprentice had a reason for attending. .”

  Luna looked back at me for a second. “You want me to enter the tournament, don’t you?”

  “It would make things simpler.”

  “After how well I did last time?”

  “Good practice.”

  Luna sighed. “Oh, fine. I suppose it won’t kill me.”

  “That’s the spirit. So what did you think of our friend Jagadev?”

  “He was. .” Luna frowned. “Different. From what I was expecting, I mean. I guess I thought he’d be like Arachne.”

  “Do you think he was being honest with us?”

  Luna thought for a second. “I’m not sure.”

  “Neither am I. He was very hard to read.”

  “He said Anne was his ward,” Luna said. “Does that mean he’s like Anne and Variam’s master?”

  “Magical creatures do sort of adopt apprentices sometimes.”

  “Then he’s supposed to look after them, right?” Luna said. “So why’s he sending them to the tournament if he thinks the thing that’s making apprentices vanish is there? Shouldn’t he be keeping them away?”

  I nodded. “And there’s something else. Back there Jagadev was acting as though the only reason he was seeing me was because I’d helped Anne. But he sent me that invitation before I helped Anne.”

  “So why did he invite you?”

  “Good question.” I glanced into the future. “Looks like Variam’s here too.”

  “Where?”

  “Far corner over your right shoulder. Don’t turn and look.”

  Luna had already taken a glance. “Why’s he scowling at us?”

  “I’ve got the feeling Variam doesn’t like us very much,” I said. Like Anne Variam had dressed up, but his outfit was much less eye-catching: a dark shirt and pants, a black denim jacket, and a black turban instead of the khaki one. By looking into the future in which I met his gaze I could watch him without seeming to
watch him, and just as Luna had said he was staring at us with a scowl.

  “What’s his problem?” Luna said.

  “Maybe he’s pissed off that I didn’t let Anne get killed.”

  Luna gave me a look. “I’m kidding,” I said. “Probably.” I glanced along the balcony. “Those mages are about to finish with Anne. Why don’t you go talk to her?”

  “Okay,” Luna said, and started to turn, then stopped with a suspicious look. “Wait, are you just trying to get me out of the way?”

  “Yes.”

  Luna rolled her eyes and left. I watched her go, seeing her move unconsciously to keep a safe distance from the people in her path. Luna’s control over her curse is much better now and to my sight it looks like a tight, dense layer of silver mist over her skin, but through force of habit she still won’t get any closer to another person than she has to.

  Someone cleared his throat from behind me. “Hi, Lyle,” I said without turning around.

  “Ah,” Lyle said. “So, er. .”

  “No, I haven’t been arrested.”

  “Well, I’m glad to hear it.”

  I thought about saying Are you? but held myself back. I turned to see Lyle looking awkward. He was wearing his usual suit and really didn’t fit into a place like this. I wondered why he’d agreed to meet Crystal here. “You want to know the story, don’t you?”

  “Well-”

  I sighed. “Oh, fine. That apprentice Anne was reported missing. I was the last to have seen her so those two came looking for me. Luckily Anne wasn’t missing after all.”

  “Ah. What happened?”

  “If you want to know the details, you’ll have to ask her.” Which was technically true: Lyle would have to ask her because I wasn’t going to tell him.

  “I see. Well, it’s good everything turned out well.”

  “Just a sec,” I said. “While you’re here there’s something I wanted to ask. What’s the deal with Anne and Variam?”

  “How do you mean?”

  “They’re a bit too good to be in the apprentice program. Why haven’t they taken their journeyman tests?”

  “Oh, I see.” Lyle relaxed a little. “Well, mostly because they don’t have a sponsor. Do you know their background?”

  I shook my head and Lyle settled down on the railing next to me, comfortable now. Gossip is Lyle’s element. “Well, both of them are in the apprentice program, but they didn’t start that way. Originally they were apprentices to a Dark mage named Sagash.”

  She was taught by a Dark mage. Her and that other boy, Variam. . They started working for a monster! I remembered Natasha’s words from the gym yesterday. Maybe she had been telling the truth, even if it hadn’t been for the right reasons.

  “Anyway, there was trouble of some kind,” Lyle continued. “I don’t know the details but it ended with the two of them leaving Sagash’s service on bad terms. After it was clear that they weren’t going back, we got in touch with them via a Light mage named Ebber. He’d had some previous contact with them while they were staying at Sagash’s residence.”

  “And?”

  “And they turned him down flat. According to Ebber they were quite hostile. He would have been more than willing to put them in touch with a master, but they were totally uncooperative.”

  “Huh,” I said. “So instead they ended up with Jagadev.”

  Lyle shrugged. “Apparently no one else would have them.” He glanced around. “On the subject, Alex. . what exactly are you doing here?”

  “Got an invitation.”

  Lyle frowned. “I’d avoid associating yourself too closely with Jagadev if I were you. He may have some influence amongst the Council, but he’s still a nonhuman.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind. So how did your chat with Crystal go?”

  “I, er. .” Lyle looked flustered. “I ought to be going.”

  I watched Lyle hurry off. I hadn’t expected that last comment to be the one to chase him away. Maybe I’d hit a nerve.

  Down below the night was in full swing, hundreds of people dancing to the thumping beat of the music. Looking down over the crowd and concentrating, I could sense flickers of magic. None were powerful but there were a lot of them. Was that what Jagadev had created here-a sort of haven for adepts? It made sense. Mages wouldn’t let a creature like Jagadev move into their own territory, but adepts aren’t something they concern themselves with.

  Up here on the balcony the crowd was thinner. I didn’t recognise most of the guests, but there were a few that I did, and they were generally people I didn’t want to talk to. Crystal and Lyle were leaving but Onyx wasn’t, and he was heading back towards me. I stepped out of his line of sight again, waited until he was past, then walked away in the opposite direction.

  As I did, I saw Anne. She was leaning on the balcony railing and looking out over the crowd, and everybody else was giving her a wide berth. I couldn’t see Luna. I considered it for maybe half a second before coming to lean on the railing next to Anne. “Don’t take this the wrong way,” I said, “but I think your normal clothes suit you better.”

  Anne gave me a glance and a half smile. She didn’t seem surprised, as if she’d known I was there. “Lord Jagadev likes me to wear it for gatherings.”

  “And you do what Lord Jagadev tells you.” I put the tiniest stress on the title.

  Anne looked out over the crowd. “It’s. . difficult.” She was silent for a moment. “I don’t like everything he asks us to do. But there are worse things than having to dress up.”

  “Trust me, I understand that part.” I paused. “Thanks for showing up when you did back there.”

  “It’s no problem.” Anne turned back to me. “Did you find out anything?”

  I shook my head. “Looks like I’ll be around to give you updates though.”

  Anne gave me an enquiring look.

  “So what’s Jagadev’s end of the deal?” I said. “He uses his connections to keep the two of you in the apprentice program?”

  Anne looked away again. “That’s part of it,” she said at last.

  “And the other part?”

  Anne hesitated, seemed about to speak.

  “Anne,” a voice said from behind us.

  I turned to see Variam. “He wants you,” Variam said, ignoring me.

  Anne sighed. “All right.” She looked at me. “I’m sorry, I have to go. I’ll see you soon?”

  I nodded. “Till then.”

  Anne left. Variam gave me a flat unfriendly look which I returned blandly, then he escorted her away, glancing over his shoulder to keep tabs on me.

  I waited until they were out of sight, then followed. I was curious about why “Lord” Jagadev suddenly wanted to talk to Anne. Anne and Variam entered Jagadev’s court a little way ahead of me. I wouldn’t be able to follow them in without being noticed. . but then, I didn’t need to.

  The technique is the same one I use for watching people, slightly modified. First you need to be close enough that you can reach them in only a few seconds. Then you look into the immediate future in which you approach. As I concentrated, in every future I was stopped before getting all the way up to where Anne and Jagadev were talking, sometimes at the door and sometimes a little farther in. But in some of those futures I’d catch a snatch of conversation, and by putting those futures together I could get the gist of what they were saying. It’s a pretty crude method of eavesdropping-an air mage could just carry the words right to his ears-but it does have the advantage of being almost completely undetectable.

  “. . and what has been happening there?” Jagadev was saying.

  “Just duelling classes,” Anne said.

  “Which mages were present?”

  “Today? I wasn’t there, so I couldn’t see, but. . Lyle, I think, and an air mage I don’t know. And there was-”

  Some people passed through the door, breaking my link and disrupting the futures in which I was watching them. I turned away and waited for them to pass. When they were gon
e, Anne was speaking again. “. . nothing serious, really.”

  “I did not ask if it was serious.”

  “Well. . there’s Natasha and her friend Yasmin. But it’s just talk.”

  “What kind of talk?”

  Anne sounded uncomfortable. “Little stuff. Talking about us to the mages, that kind of thing. It’s nothing important. .”

  “What else do your classes discuss?”

  I frowned. Jagadev wanted to know about Anne’s classes? I kept listening and Jagadev kept asking Anne questions-the other apprentices, the teachers, everything. I pulled my vision back and looked at the rest of the room. This time, instead of looking to see how the people of Jagadev’s court acted towards him, I looked at how they acted towards Anne.

  And to my surprise I got the very definite impression they were scared of her. It was subtle; they didn’t look at her directly or come too close. But the more I watched, the more sure I became that the people in that room were almost as afraid of Anne as they were of Jagadev. Maybe that outfit wasn’t for decoration, but to make sure she was noticed.

  All the same, it was odd. I’d always heard that life mages were supposed to be dangerous, but it was hard to think of Anne as a threat. She seemed too-

  “Alex? Alex!”

  I jerked back to the present to realise that Luna was talking to me. She’d come up next to me while I was distracted, and she looked tense. “We’ve got trouble. Onyx just met someone and he’s coming this way.”

  I looked into the future to see how far Onyx was. . and saw the person he was with. “Oh shit. Luna, get out of here.”

  “Where?”

  “Anywhere these guys don’t see you! Move!”

  Luna moved. I scanned quickly through the futures, looking for a way to avoid the men heading towards me, and realised it wouldn’t work. Giving Onyx the slip was one thing but the man with him had already spotted me. If I ran he wouldn’t pursue. . but it would let him know I was afraid of him. I hesitated for an instant, then walked forward to meet them just as they turned the corner to come face to face with me.